Equestria and the Time Lord Episode 11: The Distortion Express
by The Orwellian Writer
Summary: The Doctor and companions go aboard the first train headed towards Quaggai, the homeland of the zebras. But a mysterious silhouette pony comes aboard the train after them. As they enjoy themselves, they soon can no longer deny that bad things are happening aboard the train, time is warping on board to support the pony, and the train may never reach its original destination at all.
1. Episode 1 Part 1 of 3

Equestria and the Time Lord Episode 11: The Distortion Express

Episode 1: Part 1 of 3

**=Gaia, Equestria, Canterlot, The Canterlot Royal Station, Platform 1, 1023 C.E. =**

The TARDIS began to materialize in the middle of a bustling crowd of ponies, most of which were rich looking. And among them, The Doctor, Puzzlehunt, and Trixie all stepped out to join the crowd. Trixie was wearing her cape to cover up her cutie mark, which had recently been dissolved away on a quarantined space station, although not at the cost of her special talent. The Doctor seemed to be the only one who actually had a clue where they were at.

"Okay Doctor, you told us you were going to make up for us nearly getting killed, dropped us off in our houses, told us to start packing, and then left. You're obviously planning something. Where are we?" Puzzlehunt asked in a very irritated voice.

"Look around." The Doctor said.

And they did. They both looked around, comprehending where they were currently standing. They both sighed when they got it.

"Oh joy. You've brought us to a train station." Puzzlehunt said, not very impressed.

"Wonderful." Trixie said, also not very impressed at the scene.

"I have brought you to a train station, but I've brought you to a train station 20 years in the future." The Doctor said enthusiastically. "And you know what we're going to do here?"

"Ride a train?" Trixie asked in a dull voice.

The Doctor knew full well they were going to guess it (it was rather obvious) and so he wasn't shaken. "Obviously so. But this is a historically important train ride and it's quite enjoyable."

"How so?" Trixie asked, not expecting it to be fun like the Doctor had said.

"Well, this train ride is the very first on to transport ordinary ponies to Quaggai, the home country of the zebras. Before now, only a few explorers here and there have ever been there. This is really an important event for all of Equestria." The Doctor said.

"It's boring!" Trixie interjected. Puzzlehunt seemed rather interested, but still looked kind of bored by it.

"The cabin we're in is also a lavish cabin and we're living in luxury." The Doctor said, sighing.

"Okay, I'll go." Trixie said almost immediately.

The Doctor smiled. "Get all your stuff. Boarding is in about 15 minutes."

Trixie picked up all her bags and put on her distinctive star covered hat that you could see from miles and miles away.

Puzzlehunt smirked a bit, picked up all of his bags, and put on his cream colored much less noticeable hat.

The Doctor simple said, "I'll meet you on there." And stepped back into the TARDIS, which dematerialized, leaving them alone in the crowd of ponies that were waiting for a train to arrive to make them some of the first civilian ponies to step hoof in Quaggai. Nopony knew what to expect, but they all had big dreams and were all expecting big things. And everypony was excited.

Even Puzzlehunt and Trixie. Their excitement was steadily growing as they listened to the excited chatter that was emanating throughout the entire crowd. They decided to get closer to the train for when it arrived. They fought their way through the crowd that was amassing through the station. They figured that some of them were heading off on the train, while some were seeing them off. They could judge who was going by those who were carrying a camera to get proof of what they had seen. They fought their way to the front of the crowd for the whole of 13 minutes.

And the train arrived at just the right moment. It pulled up almost the second they got to the front of the crowd. And they found, to their delighted shock, that this train was not as sickeningly cute as the trains back in their home time period. It was a burgundy and black color, and it was huge. It was long enough to fit nearly everypony on this platform on the journey to Quaggai.

And the doors slid open. An elderly pony stepped out and yelled "All aboard!" (in true train movie fashion) and there was very nearly a stampede. Nearly a hundred ponies ran to get through the doors, completely crushing the train conductor beneath their hooves.

Puzzlehunt and Trixie were at the helm of this stampede, and they didn't stop to care about all the ponies they were running over. That is, until the stampede caught right up to them. And they became trampled along with the rest.

"Idiots! You very nearly killed us! Get out of my way!" Puzzlehunt yelled out the crowd as they attempted to get up but were knocked back down to more pain every time.

Trixie's horn glowed dangerously, and she looked like she was about to do something violent before the crowd dispelled around them and they were able to stand up. There were still ponies coming in, but not the magnanimous amount that was coming in earlier. They had the stability to look at their tickets (which the Doctor had slipped to them earlier) and found where they would be staying on the train. They handed in their tickets after they had memorized it and began walking to the cabin in question.

It was much closer to the front of the train than the rest of the cabins. An announcement that they vaguely heard announced that they would be taking off in about 15 minutes. That would be just enough time to get settled into the room. They would be in it for about a week and a half or so, so they had better get settled into it now.

And they walked into the room. They very nearly went into shock. It was more like a nice hotel room than what would be on a train. In fact, except for being adapted slightly to fit a moving train, it was exactly like a hotel room. They wheeled their bags through the room, looking around it. Neither of them would ever be able to afford anything like this in real life. The places the lived made them look homeless compared to the room they had gotten.

And they opened the closet to put all their stuff in, but drew back when they looked inside. "Very subtle, Doctor." Puzzlehunt said, sighing. And with that, The Doctor walked out of the TARDIS, which had been parked right in the middle of their closet.

"Well." The Doctor said. "What do you think?"

They both waited until they had placed their bags in the closet to answer. "Well…I think it's very nice indeed." Trixie said in a hesitant voice.

"You don't want to say you love it, do you?" The Doctor said.

"I like it." Puzzlehunt said doubtfully.

And they examined the room. And all of a sudden, the train started forward, knocking them against the wall.

They looked out to see ponies on the platform waving at them. They realized that they were well and truly on their way to Quaggai.

And they didn't notice the shadow that was only a black silhouette in the shape of a pony rushing towards the train. It did a bounding leap and landed on the back of the train as it sped away from the train station. It phased through the door and entered the train.


	2. Episode 1 Part 2 of 3

Chapter 2: Part 1 (Part 1 of 3)

**=Gaia, Equestria, Just Outside the Canterlot Borders, Along the Quaggai Trail, The Quaggai Express, Puzzlehunt and Trixie's Bunk, 1023 C.E. =**

Puzzlehunt and Trixie detached themselves from the walls as they found their footing along the continually moving train. They looked around and got a better chance to take in the place they would be staying in until they reached Quaggai. They found it to be nice. Two beds, a lamp that looked like it actually worked, and full accommodations for all of them. It looked like they would come to enjoy it here. Then they thought about it some more.

They would be sleeping in this room, but until they reached Quaggai, they would be spending the large portion of their day on the rest of the train. And they didn't actually have a clue what the rest of the train was like. It was then that the Doctor endeavored to give them the tour of it, having been on this train the same time it was built thanks to the power of time travel (which is also how he got the tickets for them) and noted that they would indeed like it.

They passed all the carts that were closed off for cabins, and then they passed through the carts that were reserved for ponies who didn't have cabins as they were getting off at earlier stops. As they passed out of the passenger carts, the Doctor noted, "Now this is the interesting part right here."

And he was, for the most part as they thought it, correct. They were standing in a café that had been fully set up right there in the train. It had been designed so that t still looked like a normal stay in one place kind of café that all the ponies enjoyed while still maintaining safety so that nopony would fall out or have an accident at all. It wasn't likely that they were going to be able to prevent one, though.

It was then that Puzzlehunt and Trixie both realized how obscenely hungry they both were. When you're traveling with the Doctor, you don't really have time to sop and eat. They wanted food. They wanted to drink something too, they were thirsty. But they weren't given any time to eat anything. The Doctor hurried them out of the cart to show them more. They resolved to eat immediately after this tour was finished up.

He showed them into the next car. It was mostly more space for eating at the café. They didn't spend long in there, either. They went into the next cart, which was largely a place to look out the window and see places that few ponies had ever been before. The only place to get some peace and quiet on this train. Puzzlehunt seemed rather impressed by the view. He looked forward at the track they were moving across. He resolved to spend more time here after the tour was all over and after they ate. He hurried along as the Doctor over excitedly pushed them into the next cart.

The next cart itself actually appeared to be a very small stage with a few tables. Being cooped on a train for over a week could drive you insane, and they would need some kind of entertainment. It looked like it was perfectly okay for a random pony to go up and show their skills to all the other ponies on this train.

It would be ideal for Trixie to go up and do what she did best: show off and make herself look great and powerful. She then resolved to do some practice here after the tour was over and after they ate and after they dropped Puzzlehunt off at the place he wanted to go.

The Doctor explained that it was mostly food storage and luggage carts behind that. And with that, they enthusiastically ran back to the café to eat.

The Doctor looked at them as they darted out of sight almost instantly, then he shrugged and casually walked after them to join them.

In reality, Puzzlehunt and Trixie had teleported to the café out of enthusiasm (In fact, they had no idea why they didn't use that to skip through the tour) and were already pondering over what they should order. They found that after they'd gone as long without eating as they had, everything on it looked good. They imagined that there were some ponies who were worse off in this sense, but they put it out of their minds and ordered breakfast (even thought it was coming up on lunch time) and they ordered quite a lot. They waited impatiently at a nearby table.

The Doctor walked in, looked about idly, and ordered a smaller meal as he doesn't really need to eat as much as they did. He smiled at the porter and walked over to the table that his friends slash begrudging partners were sitting at. He sat down with them and made a gesture out the window. "So what do you think so far?"

"Well we haven't really been on longer than 30 minutes, so I haven't really made an opinion about it yet." Puzzlehunt said with a bored look. "It seems fine so far, though."

"Yes, it seems like it might have enough to keep us interested for half a week or so." Trixie said, waving it off.

"Well, by then, something interesting might have happened to renew your interests. Probably, anyway." The Doctor said.

"What do you mean by that?" Trixie said.

"Well we were just in the future. I've got a pretty extensive collection of history books in the TARDIS." The Doctor said. "I was skimming a book and I found the article about this event. But I didn't actually read the entry on it before I brought us here. I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen next."

"We're getting off this train right now." Trixie said, hopping out of her seat.

If the Doctor said that something bad might happen, they could tell that almost certainly it would.

But they didn't have time to leave because…

_I'm no gonna lie…_

_I can't wait…to get to Quaggai._

Puzzlehunt buried his face in his hooves while Trixie developed an annoyed look.

The Doctor looked even more annoyed than the two of them. "Oh God, they're singing…"

And immediately, the whole room launched into a rousing song that did not rouse any of the three of them.

"What is it with you ponies and turning life into a musical?" The Doctor said angrily.

Since Puzzlehunt and Trixie were ponies themselves, they weren't offended by ponies bursting into song for no reason, it was just that their cynical personalities made them dislike it a lot.

The porter delivered their food, but he was notably delivering while dancing along with every other pony in the room.

They ate their food as quickly as they could without not being able to enjoy it and decided to go back to their rooms. They were not mentally able to handle a bunch of annoying singing.

So they went back to their rooms, steaming at the fact that their meal was ruined by an overzealous everypony.

No sooner had they gotten into their rooms did a female porter walk into the room, humming the song.

They glared at her as she said, "I'm here to take all your bags."

They handed them to her as they worked out living arrangements.

"Okay, I'll tale this bed." The Doctor said, jumping onto the bed. "And you two can share that bed together."

Puzzlehunt and Trixie looked at the not too large bed, and then at each other. They were too busy blushing at each other to notice the porter walking over and slapping the Doctor on the face.

She walked out of the room with their bags.

She walked through all the cars until she got into the entertainment car. She opened the door of that one and walked into the next car.

As she opened the door into that one, the sunlight made the only source of light in the luggage storage due to it having no windows. She dropped the bags down on the floor, lined up next to the other bags in the small beam of light.

Then a figure came into that light out of the darkness. It was the shadow of a pony wearing a hat and a cape. She looked at the figure which had half come into the light. They stared at each other for a while, her wondering what it was and it not doing anything.

Then it jumped forward and pulled her into the darkness. And contrary to what you'd think, beyond that darkness was nothing at all. The porter's body quickly dissolved away.


	3. Episode 1 Part 3 of 3

Chapter 3: Episode 1(Part 3 of 3)

**=Gaia, Equestria, Somewhere Between Canterlot and Quaggai, The Quaggai Trail, The Quaggai Express, 1023 C.E. =**

The Doctor listened through the door. He found that after 21 or so, the song that was being sung outside was finally over. "It's safe to go out now." He said to his friends.

Puzzlehunt and Trixie perked out of their moping and brightened up just a bit. "Good, good!" Puzzlehunt said. "No let's take a bit of time to enjoy this train's many upsides!" And he strolled out the door to the place he wanted to go.

"Wonderful." Trixie said. "Now I can foist off my many skills to all those who want to see my great style!" After she finished putting words together to make herself sound a lot cooler, she strolled out the door to where she wanted to go.

The Doctor stared out the door, and pondered what he would do next. There was so much available to him. That was one of the things that Time Lords had superior to humans, or in this dimension, ponies. He could truly and properly examine every single option that was open to him everywhere in any time. Time Lords were the race in the whole universe that had come the closest to being able to process infinity.

But if he wanted to stay on this train, his options were a large amount (if you thought like a pony) but in fact quite limited. He didn't really like having a limit on what he could do. He wanted everything available to him. Plus, there was something about this train he didn't like. He didn't fully think this train was quite right in some way. Wibbly-wobbly. God, he hated that phrase already. He hoped he never regenerated into someone that like to say that. However, he knew that whatever it was, it wouldn't be possible for it to affect his two companions. And besides, this train was dull. Incredibly dull. He would be back in time to fix whatever the problem was…

He quickly ran into the TARDIS, and after a second or two of him pressing buttons on the TARDIS console, the TARDIS dematerialized from the train to have some individual adventures for a bit. He'd be back a couple days before the train reached Quaggai in order to fix whatever anomaly he had sensed on this train.

Unknown to him, the shadow in the luggage cart began advancing, swallowing it completely. It was there, but it wasn't there. The shadow pony could not reach out of this darkness entirely, so he extended out. He reached out like a really long shadow, striding through the cars of the train. Hours seemed to race by instantaneously, but nopony noticed. He found his way into the front car. He watched as one of the engineers shoveled coal into the engine.

Now, up to this point it was referred to as a he, but it really wasn't anything at all. He was nothing but he was something. And he was something enough to reach forward and push the engineer directly into the fires of the engine, which chopped hid body up as it burned.

The shadow on the wall watched this. The engines would come to a stop soon. It would be waiting for that. It let its body fall backward into the shadows. Time seemed to snap instantaneously as infinity let out a scream for only a millisecond.

Everything on the train immediately skipped a day of their lives as the train seemed to cease for a moment.

"Oh my! The engineer is dead!" The conductor yelled, running over to the engines, not knowing how he had missed that for an entire day.

"Oh my! The engineer is dead!" The conductor yelled, running over to the engines, not knowing how he had missed that for an entire day.

"Oh my! The engineer is dead!" The conductor yelled, running over to the engines, not knowing how he had missed that for an entire day.

And with that, the normal backup resumed. The shadow pony slunk back into the shadows that were swallowing up the train. The ponies on board the train suddenly began to realize what had happened in the last day: nothing. The whole last day was nonexistent, but it had happened. They didn't remember anything from it. It was a span of time that was too complicated to even attempt to describe.

And because there was no one shoveling coal, the train slid to a stop. A bunch of ponies realized that they were a whole day behind schedule now due to the loss of a day where they didn't move at all.

And so a pony went up to the conductor to get an answer from him about what was going on.

The conductor was currently talking to another one of his engineers, trying to talk him into shoveling the coal in the other engineer's place. The engineer wouldn't do it, as he was worried that he would be pushed into the engine as well.

"Hey!" yelled a mare passenger, walking up to them. "What happened here?"

"Please remain calm and return to your seats." The conductor said.

"Why in Equestria should we do that?" The passenger said forcefully. "A day just disappeared and nopony can even think about it without getting this violent headache and nausea! The engineer is dead and don't even try to deny it. Something happened on this train, and I don't even think that day happened, but two of the passengers fainted when it happened!"

"What?" The conductor said. "Who was it?"

"A mare and a stallion. When the day happened, they screamed like their bodies were ripping open and fell to the ground. It's almost like they're dead, but they're still breathing. They're in the café right now." The passenger described.

"What?" The conductor asked once again as he rushed to the café to see it for himself.

And he rushed through all the passenger cars until he reached the café. He saw several mares and stallions looking at the floor at two unconscious ponies.

It was Puzzlehunt and Trixie.

**=Gaia, Equestria, Somewhere Between Canterlot and Quaggai, The Quaggai Trail, The Quaggai Express, Puzzlehunt and Trixie's Cabin, 1023 C.E. =**

It was nearly two weeks later. If I could say that the rest of the trip went by without any incident, it would be a lie. Every engineer was murdered, and the conductor ended up having to shovel the coal himself. He was not touched for some reason. And the train became days behind schedule because each murder created another time scream throughout the train. The whole train skipped a day, and the time on board the train was not in a very stable condition.

And there was increasing doubt as to whether or not the train even existed anymore. It seemed that perhaps the train had been taken out of normal reality entirely by the repeated screams through time. But the train was still in normal reality, and it seemed that reality was unwrapping entirely around the train because of the frequent time screams.

And the TARDIS materialized where it was before in quite a hurry. The Doctor stumbled out looking quite ragged. "Puzzlehunt! Trixie! I was wrong. Something is going wrong on this ship! Something is destroying time all over! I looked in up in the encyclopedia! This train is going to crash!"

But it was too late. The Shadow pony reached out of his darkened time and entered normal reality, which was colliding more and more with its reality.

He reached out and shoved the conductor into the fire. But he did not have time to snap back. The train veered off the tracks.

It crashed into a mountain with a fiery crash and took all life on the train with it…

**=Gaia, Equestria, Canterlot, Canterlot Train Station, Platform 1, 1023 C.E. =**

The TARDIS began to materialize in the middle of a bustling crowd, most of which were rich looking. Puzzlehunt, Trixie, and The Doctor got out, and he explained to them they would be taking the very first train to Quaggai. They seemed vaguely interested and boarded the train as it arrived. A stampede of ponies followed them. The Doctor smiled and got into the TARDIS and dematerialized.

As the train began to speed off, the shadow pony shook its head in bitter anger at its failure once again. The sides of its head seemed to show two faces, one a stallion and one a mare. It jumped on board the caboose of the train to try this again.


	4. Episode 2 Part 1 of 3

Chapter 4: Episode 2 (Part 1 of 3)

**=Gaia, Equestria, Somewhere Between Canterlot and Quaggai, The Quaggai Trail, The Quaggai Express, The Stage, 1023 C.E. =**

And things played out more or less the same as they did before. The Doctor, sensing something wrong on the train and not wanting to be stuck on the train, left in the TARDIS. This time, however, he knew that the issue with time was a bit worse than it was the last time. He had an idea about what was going on already, but this time he believed that the thing that was causing it wouldn't do anything to them this time around.

He was sort of right. This time around, the shadow stayed in the shadows which consumed the luggage carts. It waited until somepony was stupid enough to come to it. If a pony walked into the darkness in those carts, their bodies and minds would dissolve away into nothingness. And it was interesting how many ponies would do that of their own accord. They would go to the luggage carts, see the shadow, try to use a light, find that they couldn't see anything even with the light, shrug their shoulders, and walk into the shadows anyway. Either that, or they were investigating why they couldn't see anything even without a light. Either way, it recycled all their energy to fuel itself and create it more and more. It would be ready soon enough.

Another pony walked past the stage, ducking out of the way of Trixie's booming magic acts and Puzzlehunt being her extremely unwilling assistant. The chef was investigating the disappearance of all the other kitchen staff. He knew that last, they were going to get more food from the food storage car. He opened the door of the entertainment car and walked between the cars to the door of the luggage car. He opened it in a worried gesture and walked right in.

He died nearly instantly. And the shadow pony was this close to sticking its whole body out of the shadows and walking around. It didn't really care who it was that died to make it happen.

Meanwhile, because he was forcibly being used like a megaphone from a spell Trixie was using, Puzzlehunt was yelling out to the crowd, "And in this next trick, The Great and Powerful Trixie is going to make something appear out of thin air!"

He then muttered something unprintable in even an X rated movie directed at Trixie. He gets annoyed easily. He strutted about the stage, tapping it to show there were no trapdoors on the stage and Trixie was going to do under her own power. He then took the opportunity to sit back so he could be the one to throw the first tomato from the place Trixie was never going to expect: behind her.

As he readied it, Trixie pulled out one of her fancy smoke bombs, and with yet another exclamation of how great she was, she tossed it on the ground. She was about to perform the spell she couldn't do, when all of a sudden, she heard a familiar sound right in all the middle of the smoke.

The Doctor popped his head out of the TARDIS door, saw the smoke, and somehow immediately recognized what was going on. He waved away the smoke, revealing himself and The TARDIS right in the middle of the stage. "Ta-Da!" he yelled, signaling Trixie to follow suit.

"Ta-da!" Trixie yelled, getting into it, happy that he had showed up to save the show.

Puzzlehunt just walked off the stage, saying to himself that Trixie had just gotten lucky and that was all, and she would never be able to do it by herself.

Several ponies clapped politely, moderately impressed.

The Doctor quickly ushered her off the stage, catching up to Puzzlehunt quite quickly. "We need to talk about something." Was all he said. "Get to your cabin."

And when they were gone, he went up on the stage for just one more second to bask in the limelight. Then he rushed after them to join the two in their cabin.

And when they were all in the cabin, the Doctor was the one who broke the ice. "Well, I was recently nearly killed by a murderous group of extra dimensional leopards. How have you been so far?" he asked, giving off a grin.

Puzzlehunt stared at him for a while before he answered. "Well, I have been having a relatively enjoyable time since you left. That is until Trixie decided I needed to be her not as Great and Powerful assistant and became a bit insane."

"In my defense, I needed an assistant!" Trixie yelled. "So there!"

"Okay…that doesn't make up for it at all." Puzzlehunt said, rolling his eyes. "I've been enjoying the view here since we found this." And he walked over and opened a door, revealing a ladder that led through a closed door on the ceiling. He climbed up the ladder and opened the door, climbing through it.

"You know, I'm certain that's just an emergency exit and going up there is not actually legal." The Doctor commented. He then shrugged and climbed up the ladder after him.

Trixie sighed and decided she would go up as well. She climbed up the ladder after them to see whatever they were doing.

Puzzlehunt was looking one way at the landscape that was rushing by, and the Doctor was looking at it from the other side.

"We have officially gone out farther than there were train tracks in our home time." Puzzlehunt detailed. "We're only two days away from being in Quaggai."

"Oh yes, that reminds me." The Doctor said. "Something bad is happening on this train and it just might kill us all." Notably, he said that last sentence in a really cheerful voice.

Puzzlehunt and Trixie both stared at him with a shocked glare. "And you find this news that is easy to forget to mention?" Puzzlehunt said.

"What in Equestria is wrong with you?" Trixie said.

"I don't even think all of Equestria is capable of fitting all that's wrong with me." The Doctor said, shrugging it off.

They looked at him with a slightly sickened glare and climbed down into their room to get the explanation of whatever this big problem was.

And he didn't seem to want to tell them. He led them out of the room entirely. "Well, Time Lord are more time sensitive. They know if they happen to be caught in a time loop."

"So?" Trixie cut in.

"So I was able to detect that we're in one right now. I highly doubt that we'll be making it to Quaggai at the rate we're going."

"What do you mean?" Puzzlehunt said. Then he stopped as he looked at the door to the cabin across from theirs. "You know, that cabin was locked the whole time we were on that train, but I really want to find out what's in it for some reason."

Suddenly, the door began to open, making them jump slightly.

Meanwhile, a pony standing in the stage car wanted to get her luggage. She knew it was in the luggage car, so that's were she headed. She opened the door to it and walked inside.

Immediately after, the shadow pony walked out completely.

"Hello, me." Puzzlehunt said as he walked out of the cabin and stared at himself from 20 years ago.


	5. Episode 2 Part 2 of 3

Chapter 5: Episode 2 (Part 2 of 3)

**=Gaia, Equestria, Somewhere Between Canterlot and Quaggai, The Quaggai Trail, The Quaggai Express, The Halls Between Puzzlehunt and Trixie's Quarters and Puzzlehunt and Trixie's Quarters, 1023 C.E. =**

"What are you doing here?" Puzzlehunt said, looking at his future self and keeping his cool with remarkable precision.

"You saw us here in your future, so we knew we needed to be here in our present because we knew we were supposed to be 20 years ago." Future Puzzlehunt began to explain.

"Yes, let's stop before this gets overly confusing. You said we?" Trixie asked.

"Hello." Future Trixie said, walking out of her cabin.

"Ah." Trixie said, also keeping her cool with remarkable precision. It was then that both her and Puzzlehunt expressed their gratitude mentally that 20 years would not make them incredibly old.

"Did you come back on the train to tell us our future so we can avoid the big, big problem that the Doctor told us about on this train?" Puzzlehunt said. But he wasn't even listening to what he was saying because he was way too busy trying o find a gray hair somewhere on his counterpart, finding that there did not appear to be any.

"Fraid not." Future Trixie said. "This is one of those situations where time was so messed up we can barely even remember it ourselves and we would probably make it worse if we told you any of the parts we do remember."

"Trixie, have you actually gotten better?" Puzzlehunt said in a feigned shock voice, putting emphasis on that last word.

"Shut up."

"Ah ha!" The Doctor yelled dramatically. "But you've already revealed quite an important piece of information already. If it's as bad as you imply, then the problem is more dire than we thought and needs to be dealt with immediately. There we go! We better get on it immediately!"

"Shut up, we are totally capable of doing all this by ourselves." Future Trixie and Trixie said at the same time.

"Yet that are some things that must always be the same." Puzzlehunt said.

"I still understand that even 20 years later." Future Puzzlehunt said.

"Are we going to have to remember everything we are saying?" Trixie asked.

"No, it just comes to you in the moment." Future Trixie said, shrugging.

And then they all looked up. The Doctor had already left while they were having an existential conversation with themselves. They sighed and darted after him.

The Doctor was already in the stage car, striding up to open the door into he next car, where he knew that the bad thing on this train was.

Puzzlehunt and Trixie and Future Puzzlehunt and Trixie ran into the car, catching up to him. "What are you doing? Are you insane?" All four of them said simultaneously.

"Quite probably." The Doctor said. "Now let's allow the demonic bad thing on this train into the car we're in where it will quite possibly kill us. I really must know what it is."

Even all the ponies in the car that had no idea what was going on glared at him like he was out of his mind.

And he grasped the door handle and didn't even attempt to be dramatic. He simply ripped the door open. What was almost directly behind the door was the shadow pony. It was hobbling in between the two cars and was nearly halfway there. Apparently, it was not entirely ready to make its way out of the shadows it had been physically connected to before and was having a hard enough time balancing, much less just walking a few feet.

"You see, it would have come either way. Do come in now." The Doctor said, gesturing the shadow pony in.

The shadow darted its head up, seemed to forget it couldn't walk, and darted directly at him with unimaginable speed.

The Doctor simply trotted in the direction of their cabin at a casual pace with a winsome grin on his face. The shadow pony followed him at that unbelievably fast pace yet somehow still did not catch up to him.

The Doctor did not seem to notice that the second the shadow pony had appeared, Puzzlehunt, Trixie, and their future counterparts had seemingly ceased to be and disappeared off the train. He walked into the cabin and walked toward the TARDIS, which he had moved off-screen into the cabin. He very nearly made it.

The shadow pony rocketed into the room and hit him, causing him to be knocked into a wall, nearly putting a hole in it, which would not have been good for him as they were on a moving train.

"That hurt." He exclaimed simply. "Now why did you do that."

"Doctor…" And its voice sounded like that of a mare and a stallion.

"Ah so you can talk. Now who are you?" The Doctor asked.

The shadow pony stopped listening. It was looking at its reflection in the mirror. The Doctor walked over to the mirror and saw what it saw what it was seeing. As it stared at itself, it turned its head to the side. As it tipped its head to one side, the mirror showed Puzzlehunt's reflection. When it tipped its head to the other side, the mirror showed Trixie's reflection. And both of those faces carried a sad expression.

"Oh, I see." The Doctor said. "I think I just might understand this now. You are and entity whose consciousness is composed of both Puzzlehunt and Trixie's, I can see that."

"It was impossible. It was impossible. This train crashed and killed all on board. Puzzlehunt and Trixie and their future counterparts died at the same time. It was impossible."

"I agree. That can't happen." The Doctor said.

"But there was a fault in the TARDIS systems, so it did happen. The timeline of this point became incredibly fractured like nothing ever before. The time paradox of two versions of the same ponies dying at once was collated into me."

All the Doctor knew was that the last word the shadow had said was not me, but that was the closest thing you could get from it. "So you would be a time shadow."

"Yes. I walk through the fractures in an attempt to put them back together."

"You mean you want to stop the train from crashing, but you never can. Well, you know full well, I am a Time Lord. I can help with that problem." The Doctor silently made his way over to the TARDIS, silently opening the door. "All we have to do is correct the fault on the TARDIS and we'll be quite fine…"

"No! It has to be me that does it!"

And with that, the time shadow lunged forward, knocking them forward and knocking them backwards into the TARDIS console.

"You can't do it! I am the one who has to! I am! I am!"

The Doctor, struggling, managed to lift a panel off the inner circuitry of the TARDIS console. The time shadow tried to push his head into the wiring, which would have electrocuted him pretty badly. The Doctor managed to put his hoof into it. He fished around and found what was very distinctly a fault in the distortion corrector. Ignoring the fact that someone was trying to strangle him, he pushed it back into place.

And the Train, everypony on it, and the TARDIS seemed to instantaneously no longer be there anymore. They vanished entirely left nothing behind. They were quite simply gone.


	6. Episode 2 Part 3 of 3

Chapter 6: Episode 2 (Part 3 of 3)

**=Outside Normal Reality, The Dark Time Corridor, The Quaggai Express, Puzzlehunt and Trixie's Former Cabin, 1023 C.E. =**

The Doctor immediately felt sick and was nearly ready to throw up, something Time Lords couldn't do. He looked up, his head spinning. His vision was all blurred when he looked around the cabin. Then he realized something. His vision wasn't blurred. The cabin itself was blurred. And the Doctor began to realize what was happening. He hoped desperately that he was wrong. But just in case, he let his stomach depress and he loosened a little while tightening up at the same time.

And he saw that the cabin was clear now, although he would have to stay in this uncomfortable position for it to stay that way. His fears were confirmed, although he hoped for evidence that would prove it wrong. He looked to see the shadow pony was gone now. He was no longer in the room. He gulped down, breathed in, and knew he had to see. Then another thing hit him. The TARDIS wasn't there. He had been in the TARDIS before. He looked around the room. He could feel it, but it was not entirely there. It had dematerialized to attempt to escape, and now it was caught 'between places.'

And he was left behind now. He strengthened his body and stiffly walked out of the room. He would have to see if he wanted to get out. That was the first step. He looked around the inappropriately well lit corridors around him. Understandably, they were all empty. He steadied on as he made his way to the front of the train. The Doctor knew that helm was a separate cart than the cart he was in right now, but when he got there, he found every single one of the cars had been magically linked together into one car. He continued through the distorted version of the actual train. He noted briefly that they would be in Quaggai right now if every thing had gone to plan. Without any intervention from the shadow pony, they just might have been (But then, he knew nothing of the geography of this planet). He found that he was at the engines already. There was nothing keeping them going anymore, but they were still moving. And he was terrified because he knew what they were moving through.

And he saw it, through a window. It was like they were moving through a tunnel with completely smoothed over walls, and there was no light except for that of the lights of the train. The tunnel seemed to go on forever.

"What is it? What have you done to ussssssss… What have you done?" said a voice that was so warped that you couldn't tell how many ponies were speaking at once.

The Doctor turned around and saw a figure that gave him quadruple vision to look at. It was the time shadow, and it was split apart to reveal the four personas that made it up. "Well you know what this is? This is what the time vortex would look like if time itself didn't exist at all. That's what it is. The fault being fixed meant that all the distortions on board this train had to be erased. But there were so many that the whole train had to be erased out of existence and you still have to go through the hell that is your existence because you are part of this train now, you are the distortion and you have entered nothingness entirely, where you'll have to stay entirely. I can imagine that you won't even be able to exist in here for much longer because all four of your personas are coming apart already."

"And the ponies on the train?"

"I imagine they were put back where they were, as they as a being had nothing to do with you…even though I can't really call whatever you are now you anymore." The Doctor said seriously."

And then they found that two of the personas from the time shadow disappeared. Puzzlehunt and Trixie as the Doctor knew them were entering normal reality again, and with barely anything holding them (it, whatever) together, Future Puzzlehunt and Trixie stood separate from each other, looking more like ghosts that were about to cease to exist altogether.

"Well, since this place technically doesn't exist in the first place, it is going to collapse this train altogether. I don't entirely intend to stay her for when it does. I better get the TARDIS back." The Doctor said, looking up. He quickly walked off.

Future Puzzlehunt and Trixie tried to go after him so he couldn't leave them here behind, but they found they were rooted to the spot. They began to try to get him the only way they could.

The Doctor was about to walk back to the TARDIS, but all of a sudden he found himself back in the entertainment car, just at the end. The Doctor looked behind him and saw only blackness. He sighed and realized he was going to have to make it to the TARDIS very quickly, as this place was coming apart completely.

Yet he walked off just as casually as he came, whistling to himself. He was trying to ignore the natural fear that being in a place like this gave a Time Lord. He wouldn't be able to function if he didn't. He powered forward, trying not to look into the inky blackness that was kind of his species' weakness.

And he knew that he'd have to get the TARDIS to rematerialize even though it couldn't. A bit tricky, but he could do it if he got to the center of the distortions in time. God, this place actually sort of confused him a little. It was the dump where all the things that don't make any sense to the universe go, and he supposed it was going into the crusher. That was about as simple as you could make it.

But oh well. He knew exactly where the center of the distortions was. The eerie silence followed him and trailed him continuously. He reached it then. It was the place in between the normal Puzzlehunt and Trixie's cabin and Future Puzzlehunt and Trixie's cabin. And it full center was going to converge in just a few moments now. This was where he could feel the presence of the TARDIS the most.

(You know, if this is confusing to you, it's confusing me trying to write my way out of it)

Anyway, the convergence was when the darkness at the back of the train, another center, reached this point right here.

And Future Puzzlehunt and Future Trixie seemed to stare out of the rooms beside him and glare at him.

And then the TARDIS materialized right in that spot, but it did not sound happy based on the sound it made. The Doctor smirked, stepped in, waved goodbye to the two personas left of the time shadow, and closed to doors. The TARDIS dematerialized and was able to enter normal space, somehow and someway.

And a darkness seemed to consume the area. All that was left was like a spotlight right on the spot where the TARDIS was at, with Puzzlehunt and Trixie (the future versions) staring in from both sides before it flickered off.

**=Gaia, Quaggai, The Plains at the Border of Quaggai, 1023 C.E. =**

"Ah, history books. The best way to know if history had changed." The Doctor said, opening the book and beckoning Puzzlehunt and Trixie over to him. They walked over and he began reading.

"On July 15, 1023 C.E, the Quaggai Express was due to be the first train to Quaggai. However, it never arrived, and all the ponies who were due to go on it disappeared. They reappeared two weeks later in Quaggai with no memory of what happened in those two weeks. The mystery of what happened to them was never solved, although several urban legends were formed around it."

"Well we could have figured that out by ourselves." Trixie commented, looking into the vast plains behind them. A bunch of ponies with confused expressions were wandering through them. "We couldn't find our future selves anywhere."

"Yes, they don't exist anymore." The Doctor said cheerfully.

"What?" Puzzlehunt asked.

"They were erased along with the train. That doesn't really mean anything. All it means is that you aren't going to be them anymore is all. Now let's enjoy ourselves." The Doctor said, shrugging it off.

And he walked into the plains for two uneventful (okay, not really) weeks of relaxation.

His companions rolled their eyes and began to walk in after them. And they never worried again about the confusing mess of events that took place on that train, nor did they try to detangle them.

They just focused on the future.


End file.
